Lady Gaga's recent artRAVE thing was meant to be sponsored and financed by American Express but according to Billboard they "backed out" a couple of days before it took place.
The whole thing was due to be streamed live by American Express as part of their Unstaged series but the deal was believed to have been 'scuppered' by "creative differences".
According to three executives who had a chat to Billboard about it all, AmEx still ended up being a silent partner in the event, ie they still covered some of the $3m production costs.
Billboard asked AmEx for a quote about it all and this is what they said:
"American Express had been in discussions to potentially live stream Lady Gaga's performance during Sunday's ArtRave event. American Express decided not to proceed with the live stream because of an inability to reach a mutual agreement on the production of the event. However, American Express honored its commitments to Lady Gaga and her team, and the event was able to proceed without an official role for American Express.
Lady Gaga is an incredible artist and we hope to work together in the future."
So there we are.
